CONDUCT OF LOVE

“Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil” (1 Cor. 13:5 NKJV).

1 Corinthians 13 has been called the great love chapter in the Bible. What we hear about love today is not true love, for it lacks the character of true love. Our verse gives four important characteristics of true love which contrast to much of what society say about love. It says love is not shameful in conduct, not selfish in conduct, not sensitive in conduct, and not spiteful in conduct.

Not shameful in conduct – “Does not behave rudely.” The word translated “rudely” refers to shameful conduct. It implies moral disgrace. Much of what is called love today is actually indecent conduct, for it is conduct of moral impurity. True love behaves virtuously not immorally. Much of what is called love do not qualify as acts of love and have nothing to do with love but only with lust.

Not selfish in conduct – “Does not seek its own.” The selfish person is not a person of love. The selfish person will be rude, inconsiderate, and unkind to others because they are only concerned about advancing self. The selfish person does not know how to give. Lack of giving in the offering plate is nothing but a lack of love not a lack of cash.

Not sensitive in conduct – “Is not provoked.” True love does not get upset quickly. It does not wear its feelings on its shoulders. It is not touchy and easily irritated. It controls its temper. It is not quickly angered. Love does not get itself in brawls and fights at the drop of a hat, i.e., doing something immediately without stopping to think about it.

Not spiteful in conduct – “Thinks no evil.” Thinking evil thoughts is not love. The word “think” here literally means to reckon, to keep an account. The idea here is of keeping track of the evils that others have done to us and then returning evil back to those people. It is this “tit for tat” conduct that is condemned here. Love is not like that. It does not act spitefully to those who have wronged them. True love is not vindictive.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading 3)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“Fight hate with love, persecution with prayer, indifference with compassion, and bad with good!”

Jack Wellman (1907 – 1935)

American Pastor, Author, and Freelance Writer    

Word Study

Filling up

In Mark 4:37 we read, “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up” (NASB).

“Filling up” is the Greek word gemízō (γεμίζω = ghem-id'-zo), and it means filling a vessel with a solid object. It is to put something into an object to the extent of its capacity. “Filling up” is in the present tense, vividly picturing the boat being inundated by the waves so that water began to accumulate dangerously. One can only imagine the pounding hearts of the experienced fishermen among the disciples. In a panic, the disciples awakened the Lord Jesus who calmly rebuked the wind and sea by saying, “Peace, be still!” (v. 39). We should not think that just because we are going through some “storm” in our lives that somehow, we are being punished or that we are being disobedient. No doubt God does send some storms to get our attention like he did with Jonah (cf. Jonah 1:4). Other times storms come because of our obedience. The point here is that the Lord Jesus sent them into the boat, knowing that a storm was coming. In order to get to the other side, they had to go through a storm. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be prepared for the storms that will surely come. The Christian life is not just smooth sailing but triumphant living and trust in our Savior.

Did You Know…

Discrimination against the poor is one of the social issues addressed by the Book of James (James 2).

Bible Quiz

What did the apostle Paul mean when he said, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand?”

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz

Why was it to the benefit of the disciples for the Lord Jesus to leave them? The Holy Spirit would come (John 16:7).

Prophecies Fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus’ body would not see corruption (Psalm 16:10; cf. Acts 2:31; 13:35)

"For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10 NJKV).

In context, King David wrote these words but, his body did decay after he died and was buried. In contrast, the body of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah did not undergo decay. The Lord Jesus was in the tomb three days and yet experienced no decay since He was resurrected triumphantly from the grave. Both the apostle Peter (Acts 2:31), and the apostle Paul (Acts 13:35) quoted Psalm 16:10 to defend the fact that the Messiah’s resurrection had been prophesied in the Old Testament. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is based on the covenant promise that God unconditionally swore to David (cf. 2 Sam. 7:11-16). An eternal kingdom demands an eternal King, not a dead one! David is dead! The Lord Jesus Christ is alive forevermore! Hallelujah! Amen!

Did You Know – Christian History

Pelagius lived sometime between A.D. 390 and 418. It is believed that he was of British descent. He was also highly educated, spoke and wrote Latin and Greek with great fluency, and was well versed in theology.

However, Pelagius was a theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (Pelagianism) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. He taught that man’s nature was essentially good. Christian teaching traditionally hold that because of Adam’s sin all men were born with a strong tendency to sin. Pelagius said that an individual had the power to do right by choosing to do right and by beating the body into submission through abstinence. Traditional Christianity said that men could defeat their tendencies to sin only by the working of God’s grace in their heart. Pelagius’s ideas meant that Christ’s death on the cross served more as a moral example than as an atonement able to transform the soul from within by divine force. This made the Pelagian teaching contrary not only to the Bible but common experience. Without the power of Christ at work in us, uncontrollable desires, pride and other evils grab us and take us farther than we thought we would go. Pelagius was accused of heresy at the Synod of Diospolis in 415 and his doctrines were harshly criticized by Augustine of Hippo, the church’s greatest thinker in that day.

A letter from Augustine to Pope Innocent I explaining to him the issues at stake, led him to declare that men who deny the necessity of grace must be cut off from the church, lest their festering wound should corrupt the rest of the body. And so on January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemned the teachings of Pelagius. He sent five letters to North Africa. Their contents would prove a heavy blow to the controversial Pelagius since these letters carried his excommunication. “We judge by the authority of apostolic power that Pelagius and Celestius be deprived of ecclesiastical communion, until they return to the faith out of the snares of the devil....” wrote the Pope. Innocent I died shortly after issuing his excommunication of Pelagius. Traveling to Rome, Pelagius convinced Zosimus, the succeeding Pope to lift the ban. Zosimus took the stance that Pelagius had been unfairly condemned because of the hostility of bishops. The Africans scrambled to convince Pope Zosimus that the Pelagian ideas must be condemned. They documented shifts in Pelagius’s theology, claiming he changed his tune each time he was cornered. Augustine drew up a statement of faith and sent it to the Pope. In 418 Zosimus ceded and reaffirmed the earlier condemnation of Pelagius.

A Little Humor

My mother taught me IRONY – “Keep crying, and I’ll give you something to cry about.”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“That ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ Thing, I Meant It – God!”